Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Syracuse University Press has been publishing in Irish Studies since 1981, the first program of its kinds in North America, and the press has remained a leader in the field since. Take a look at some highlights from our list available now.
This May sees John McGahern’s 1965 classic, The Dark, back in print in the United States for the first time in years. The novel follows a promising young boy’s struggles to break free from the economic and social forces trapping him in a lifestyle that is both familiar and suffocating. At the heart of the novel is the boy’s complex and stormy relationship with his abusive, widowed father, who is left to raise a family with little outside aid. The Dark is a story of alarming brutality, surprising tenderness, and poetic lyricism; a reflection of Irish society that maintains historical significance as contemporary Ireland continues to build its national identity. The new edition includes a glossary, explanatory footnotes and four scholarly essays aimed at guiding readers through both the novel and the controversies that surround its publication and reception.
Some of the most iconic, hard-boiled Irish detectives in fiction insist that they are not detectives at all. Hailing from a region with a cultural history of mistrust in the criminal justice system, Irish crime writers resist many of the stereotypical devices of the genre. These writers have adroitly carved out their own individual narratives to weave firsthand perspectives of history, politics, violence, and changes in the economic and social climate together with characters who have richly detailed experiences. Author Anjili Babbar prefers to name these characters in the tradition of Saint Anthony of Padua, and in Finders: Justice, Faith, and Identity in Irish Crime Fiction, their unique traits fall under the magnifying glass. Babbar pays particular attention to how these stories deal with uniquely Irish themes of colonialism and differing, broader visions of justice.
Well known as one of Britain’s leading mid-20th Century filmmakers, Brian Desmond Hurst always maintained an exile’s love of his home in Ireland. In The Last Bohemian: Brian Desmond Hurst, Irish Film, British Cinema, Lance Pettitt examines just what made Hurst such an icon and to who does his legacy belong to? Pettitt also traces how directors are often enshrined in national and cultural narratives of art and media and examines how Hurst’s work has been reclaimed in Belfast and elsewhere.